#Geno's painting was an experiment at more detailed backgrounds

[missd476]

I had the urge to try watercolors again. Even if I'm not good at it.

[fanfictionofkathrinesnow]

Keep in mind that this is an ongoing project, so the timeline may change to suit the story’s needs.

This timeline also CONTAINS SPOILERS as it shares a brief breakdown of all the Super Mario stories I intend to write.

Part 2

Super Mario Disaster Master Page

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- Mario Bombs Away

Mario Sr.’s wartime adventures before he enters the Mushroom World.

Mario Sr. immigrated to the US from Italy as a young adult, where he lived a normal life as a workman. I’m not sure if he was drafted or if he volunteered, but he ended up as a soldier about midway through the Vietnam War. He picked up the skills to navigate the Mushroom World there, from his experiences with jungle warfare.

(I don’t plan to write this, but it provides valuable background information.)

- Donkey Kong

Later in life, Mario Sr. stumbles into the Mushroom World, where he meets his future wife (who doesn’t have a name yet).

DK (a young Cranky Kong) saved her from an arranged marriage and a horrible political situation. However, she doesn’t know that was DK’s intention and neither does Mario. Mario happens to spot them and chases the two around for a while until the misunderstanding clears up. They leave DK on good terms and Mario escorts her to the Mushroom Kingdom (the closest group of humans not caught up in her homeland’s mess) to seek asylum, and Peach’s family welcomes them warmly.

She adores Mario, and eventually they get married.

(Mario Sr. and his wife end up playing a significant role in the Mushroom Kingdom after their arrival. The bro's mom is a powerful star sage, and becomes something of a mentor for Peach’s mother. Peach’s dad takes Mario Sr. on as a sort of bodyguard, and they become fast friends.)

- Yoshi Island

Some years later, Mario Sr. and his wife have twins. Things go well for a while, but when the boys are around two, word gets out about some particularly potent prophecies concerning them. Bowser’s dad sends Kamek to kidnap the boys; he gets Luigi but loses Mario along the way.

Mario Sr. attempts to get them back, but sustains a serious injury in the process. He walks with a cane for the rest of his life. The Yoshis save the day and everything turns out alright, but Mario Sr. no longer feels capable of protecting his kids. He moves his family back to the US—to his old home in Brooklyn.

(Between the kidnapping and his time in Darkland, Luigi develops some childhood trauma from this incident. This plays a big role in his young life.)

(Despite these events, Mario Sr. doesn’t leave the mushroom world until the boys are about five. Not long after Yoshi’s Island, Bowser’s father dies at the hands of Cackletta, making Mario Sr. think the boys are safe. But yet another incident occurs a year or two later. I don’t know the details—it’s a stand-in for Partners in Time, but I know it doesn’t play out the same way. This is the last straw and Mario Sr. moves his family to Brooklyn.)

(I’m pretty sure Peach’s dad and Mario Sr. have a falling out as well, over the Surassaland-backed pilfering of Darkland after King Koopa’s death. Mario Sr.’s injuries save him from having to get involved, but I don't think the concept sits well with him. It caused a rift between them—nothing nasty, but enough to prevent any burning desire to return to the Mushroom World soon.)

- “Origins”

The bro’s mom dies in an accident when they’re 15 or 16, removing any lingering desire Mario Sr. has to return to the Mushroom Kingdom. He lives the remainder of his life with his boys, running “Mario and Sons Plumbing” and eventually dies of a stroke. The boys are probably 22.

Origins is several of the side-scrolling games wedged into one.

When the bros go through their parent’s possessions after their father’s death, Mario finds the portal painting their parents kept to get back to the mushroom world (the same deal as the paintings in Mario 64). He jumps through and mucks about for a while, exploring the world and having the strangest sense of dejavu. He winds up in the right place at the right time to save Princess Peach from Bowser. When Mario escorts her back to her castle, Toadsworth recognizes him immediately, because of how much Mario looks like his father. Toadsworth doesn’t say anything, but he encourages Mario’s visits and makes him feel special and welcome. Mario makes a habit of showing up after that, and starts building a reputation for heroics.

(Peach’s parents both died not long after Mario Sr. left. I don’t know the details yet, but I’m pretty sure it was a case of “what goes around comes around.” This left Peach in the care of Toadsworth, who she basically considers her dad now. Despite the sudden loss of the king and queen, with the help of Sarasaland Toadsworth managed to retain most of the Mushroom Kingdom's land and resources, including the territory stolen from a young Prince Bowser.)

- Super Mario Land

Mario and Peach have become good friends by this point. When Peach gets word that her childhood friend Daisy needs help, she goes to Mario, sending him on a wild adventure into the heart of Surassaland. He meets Daisy’s family in this story, and though they keep their feelings veiled, they instantly consider him a threat and a rival for Peach’s hand (despite their falling out with Peach, they still hope she will get over her issues with them and marry Prince Haru, Daisy’s big brother). This incident foreshadows some of the political issues that come into play later in the timeline.

- RPG

Mario is pretty well known across the Mushroom Kingdom, Darkland, and Surassalnd by now. He visits the mushroom world more frequently and stays for longer (leaving Luigi very concerned, but more on that later). Then Smithy shows up, sweeping Mario into one of his biggest adventures yet.

Through this situation, Mario meets Geno, who talks about some of the prophecies that mention the bros. He also introduces Mario to the concept of “star chosen” and “sages.” He heavily implies that the bro’s mother was a very powerful figure in the mushroom world. I don’t know how much of this Mairo swallows, probably not a lot, but it opens the door to that sort of thinking. It also prompts him to talk to Toadsworth, who confirms that Mario Sr. had lived in the mushroom world and met the bro’s mother there.

- Mario Bros

Things stay quiet for a while after RPG. Bowser keeps himself busy rebuilding his castle, and generally being conflicted after fighting alongside Mario and Peach. But when he finally does go after Peach again and Mario stomps him as usual, all his hard feelings come rolling back.

In the meantime, Luigi is becoming seriously concerned. Mario hardly helps with the business anymore—he’s hardly around at all. When he does come back, he brings all sorts of money with him, and more than once he’s been busted up. Luigi's starting to think Mario has gotten tangled into a gang or something.

That is, until Mario takes home a power star and tucks it under the floorboard.

Geno told Mario about the star chosen—told him that only the chosen can hear the glittering sound that stars make. With Bowser obviously growing desperate, Mario tucks a star away in his secret stash just in case, assuming Luigi won’t be able to hear it.

Luigi spends all day looking for whatever’s making that infernal ringing sound, and when he finds it, the star won’t stop following him and flying around his head. When Mario comes back to find a very disgruntled Luigi with questions.

Reluctantly, Mario starts to explain. Luigi is incredulous, that is, until a hoard of massive turtles come flooding after Mario from the sewers.

- Mario 64

When Mario and Luigi become cornered in the apartment above their shop, Mario drags Luigi through the painting. They sprint for the castle to warn Peach, only to find Bowser waiting for them. The situation ends badly.

Luckily, Yoshi manages to free Mario so he can save the day, but it’s a rough first introduction to the mushroom world for Luigi. But once he’s free, he does help Mario gather stars, and as the adventure goes on Luigi gets the same feeling of dejavu for the world that Mario did.

(After 64, utterly exhausted and their home in Brooklyn destroyed, Mario and Luigi accept Toadswroth’s offer to stay at the castle for a while. Mario explains to Luigi in detail his adventures in the mushroom world, and with both brothers finally present, Toadsworth explains the full story of their parents as well. Luigi can’t disbelieve it—not anymore. He can also see that Mario is very taken with the princess.

At the end of their stay, Luigi offers to relocate to the Mushroom Kingdom for good, moving what’s left of the family plumbing business with him.)

Keep in mind that this is an ongoing project, so the timeline may change to suit the story’s needs.

This timeline also CONTAINS SPOILERS as it shares a brief breakdown of all the Super Mario stories I intend to write.

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Part 2

Super Mario Disaster Master Page

[gofancyninjaworld]

Initial conditions: Blust! and OPM

While Yusuke Murata is much better known as an illustrator per excellence, he has written some stories and non-fiction pieces.  One of his works is Blust! a part-comedy, part-science fiction manga featuring a curry-powered soldier of fortune. It was published in Weekly Shonen Jump #22-23 in 2009 as a one shot. You can read it here and I highly recommend it. 

Why read?  Well, other than being a shortish (51 pages) and funny read, it also gives one an insight into the sort of story Murata likes writing, the way he approaches character and has some really good relevance to One-Punch Man.  Put briefly, it turns out that OPM is just the sort of story that Murata loves to read and that Genos is in really good hands. 

Adventure ho!

Blust! definitely does not take itself too seriously: Murata loves the idea of the odd twist to create humour, so you have a ridiculous village where just about everyone is a secret operative available for hire.  The titular character, Honozaka Kai, (nicknamed Blust) has a problem in that thanks to his failure to rescue a scientist, he and his handler are now owe their client a significant amount of money, even though the fiasco left him with cybernetic arms that fire nuclear blasts... provided he’s eaten enough curry. 

What it does take extremely seriously are references. It becomes obvious from the very first page that Murata does his homework in both visual and technological references that he wants to use.  Geographical settings, backgrounds, weather, vehicles, weapons, materials and the way they respond when broken, all of it has been meticulously researched and comes across right away. 

The plot itself is a relatively straightforward action adventure, but it’s well-thought out. It’s a bit too much story for the number of pages he had and so you get more exposition and a pace that could totally have used another two instalments to fully bring out the ideas that Murata definitely had in mind, but it works.  A short self-contained story is not the place to try out complex characterisation and Murata doesn’t try. However, he does create good characters who never carry the idiot ball.  In drawing style, you can see influences from his work in Eyeshield 21 and from Toriyama. He puts a lot of emphasis on good facial expression and good movement. 

The appeal that One-Punch Man held for Murata is obvious right away. A wide-ranging action story that’s clever, funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously?  It’s right up his street.  Of course OPM has some more serious satirical elements to it and overall is a closer study of the human condition than Blust could ever be but its spirit is very much kindred. 

You promised there’d be cyborgs

Which brings me onto the next thing: Cyborgs!  It turns out that Murata loves himself some cyborgs and has put a lot of thought into realising them, which has been all to the benefit of OPM.   Let’s introduce Major Bah Mou, our major baddie and envious cyborg.  Is he not glorious?

He and Kai have a short but intense battle which the latter wins with the sort of devastating common sense that’s both a perfect fit for OPM and a great illustration of the way Murata thinks about cyborgs.  Major Bah Mou’s neck was broken because he’d had his arms grafted on without investing the major additional work required to adequately modify and reinforce the rest of his body. 

This incomplete workmanship contrasts beautifully with the very heavy back armoring that Genos features and its manifested consequence of turning what should be a horrifying crash into an annoyance.  Because OPM has more space and time to develop ideas, Murata doesn’t have to tell us these things: he can just show them. 

Something that I also greatly appreciated is his acknowledgement of pain.  Part of Major Bah Mou’s terrible attitude is the chronic pain he lives with as a result of his hasty surgery. 

 The humanity of Dr. Kuseno shows when we see that he gives thought to the pain that Genos can experience when he puts him under general anaesthesia for major procedures.  It goes without saying that he’d never countenance Genos suffering chronically.  Seeing the roots of of how Murata thinks about and realises cyborgs is quite exciting.  

Murata puts the technological gloss on the ideas that ONE raises and does so without any information dumps or telling, just pure showing. But he’s been thinking about how to realise cyborgs and what issues they may experience for a long time.   Not just Genos, but all the other cyborgs we see in OPM, like Drive Knight and Jet Nice Guy, have the benefit of an illustrator who thinks carefully about them. 

Conclusion

Wrapping up, reading Blust! is a great way to understand better how and why Murata and ONE work so well together.  They’re both working on the kind of story they like -- big ideas, great action, funny without being farcical.  Murata brings a lot of detail to the big picture that ONE paints.  And even as OPM has grown more serious and considered, there’s still a light touch that’s all to the better. 

Now go read Blust! 

[rayadraws]

Experiences customizing my Obitsu 11

I’m writing this post because from what I’ve seen, there is not a load of information out there on Obitsuroids, at least not that I’ve found and/or in English. I don’t know a lot myself, but I do have a little bit of personal experience now, as well as searching around the web to learn more. In this post, I will give a bit of background and share my experiences customizing my first OB11 body.

My Little Borg is a Genos nendoroid head on an Obitsu 11 (sometimes shortened down to OB11) ball jointed doll (BJD) body. This doll is often used together with Nendoroid heads, creating a hybrid doll referred to as an Obitsuroid. OB11 weren’t specifically created for nendos, so you need to customize the body a bit to fit, but it’s not difficult.

OB11 bodies come in three colours, which are called White, Natural and Black. The White body is usually recommended for nendos, as its skin colour is the closest to most nendos. For Genos, I used the black one, which is a shiny black. It can be a bit harder to find than the others. I purchased mine via a store called Toymalaysia through Etsy, though I have also seen this model on Amazon - but for a higher price. I haven’t been able to find it on eBay, though I have seen the other models on there.

I had seen some people that had painted their OB11 to look more cyborg-y and I wanted to try that as well, so I looked around the web for advice. Most people recommend a sealant called Mr. Super Clear. I purchased the “matt” version, although if you’re doing a cyborg body, you could probably also go with the glossy (in fact, in retrospect, I think it would have looked very nice on Genos’ body!). But if you intend to customize any faces, the matt is recommended as it looks more natural on “skin”.

I acquired acrylic metallic paints and also used a black Copic marker, as well as a gold and silver Sharpie, and a white Posca pen.

The smart thing to do is to thin your acrylics with water and paint many layers to avoid a rough/uneven surface, which I didn’t do because I learnt about this after the fact (also I am very impatient so no guarantee I would have done it anyway...). But the “texture” doesn’t bother me too much, since I used the acrylics for the metal parts, which might have a bit of “wear and tear” and a rough surface anyway. I used the Sharpies on the edges and small details, which worked very nicely, as I’m less confident with a brush on small details. I likewise used the Copic to clean up uneven edges. Finally I used a white Posca pen (which is a type of liquid paint pen) to draw in Genos’ pale spine.

In the middle of the process - you can see on the feet that I had to use several layers before the paint would cover an area completely

When I was happy with what I had, I sprayed the body with Mr. Super Clear. I might have used too much I think, because it got a little thick in places as it dried (after running down the sides a bit). It was interesting to see just how well it worked - it made the (unpainted) black parts look noticeably less glossy than they had been, while the silver parts are still shiny, though less so than before I applied the sealant.

Unfortunately! I noticed that Mr. Super Clear did not get along with... well, I can’t say for sure if it was the Sharpies or the Copic - or both - but either way I noticed afterwards that the colours had run a bit and now looked more uneven than they did before I sprayed it on, pretty noticeably so. Same with the Posca. It’s not the end of the world - I’ve been using my Sharpies to fix it up again, but it’s something that is worth knowing, especially if you intend to use these type of markers on something more sensitive and/or detailed, like a face plate. I did not know beforehand that this might happen, especially since this sealant is so heavily recommended everywhere. It did not appear to affect the acrylics at all.

All in all it was a fun learning experience and while the result isn’t perfect, it will work for my purposes! I learnt a lot!! And I do have a second black body, so I may one day attempt to customize that one too... maybe to use Genos’ newer body from the manga...

This is what the final result looks like:

If you compare Genos’ neck in this photo with his arm in the top photo above, you can see how much less glossy even the black parts look like after the application of Mr. Super Clear!

And here is what he looks like once fully dressed: